


[S] Begin your story.

by oryx



Category: Kamen Rider Decade
Genre: Alternate Universe - SBURB Fusion, Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-10
Updated: 2019-06-27
Packaged: 2020-02-29 07:29:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18774058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oryx/pseuds/oryx
Summary: Four online friends play a strange game.





	1. ==> Someone is messaging you.

**Author's Note:**

> for anyone unaware, it's. it's a homestuck thing. i'm so sorry.  
> probably understandable with little to no hs knowledge? but much more fun if you know the basics of sburb & how it works  
> intended to turn into a crossover with another rider at some point but god knows if i'll get there

tempestuousBandit began pestering itinerantAperture  
TB: tsukasaaaa >:)  
TB: are u there  
TB: did u get it yet  
TB: …  
TB: i know ur seeing this  
TB: i can sense it in my fucking BONES that ur reading these words right this moment  
TB: are u ignoring me  
TB: :/  
TB: :///  
TB: ur gonna be like this huh  
TB: just bc of that stuff i said last time? talk about lame & cowardly. u were the one who started it anyway but lol ok sure, it’s all on me  
TB: i’ve already forgiven & forgotten like a mature adult but here u are being petty  
TB: is this what u want to do? bring bad vibes into our fun game? ruin everyone’s good time bc of some bullshit that doesn’t even matter?  
TB: zzzz – me asleep bc of how boring ur being  
TB: well guess what  
TB: ur officially cancelled. that’s right. i’m CANCELLING U  
TB: have fun in Cancellation City, population: tsukasa!  
tempestuousBandit ceased pestering itinerantAperture

   
You’re fairly certain that would have more bite to it if he didn’t “cancel” you at least once a week.  
   
The truth is, it’s not that you spitefully ignore him as much as the thought of answering just exhausts you sometimes. Every other conversation with that guy feels like navigating an absurd flirty minefield of barbs and oneupmanship. It doesn’t help that half the time you have no memory of what he’s talking about when he references your previous conversations. You’d assume he was pranking you if he didn’t always seem so earnest about it.  
   
You sigh dramatically as you spin your desk chair around, getting to your feet and wandering over to throw open the balcony doors, stepping out into the sun. Leaning against the railing provides the typical view of the gardens laid out below, the topiaries beginning to overgrow in a somewhat unsightly manner, the white brick of the quaint pathways beginning to look more than a little off-colour. The fountain in the center of the courtyard has all but dried up. Actually, you can’t recall the last time this place was in peak condition.  
   
Your name is KADOYA TSUKASA. You live in this sprawling, remote lakeside estate completely alone, which recently you’ve started to find a bit strange. The details of your past are ODDLY FUZZY at times. You try to remain as coolly unconcerned about it as possible, but you have to admit it nags at you deep down. You have a keen interest in FILM PHOTOGRAPHY, at which you are NOT VERY GOOD but will doggedly insist that you are in fact a misunderstood artistic visionary ahead of your time. You fancy yourself a bit of a WORLD TRAVELER as well, despite having never really been anywhere. It’s more something you feel in your soul. Something you were meant for.  
   
You are currently awaiting the arrival in the mail of a multiplayer co-op game sent to you by one of your online friends. You’re not much for such things, typically, but when a certain someone brings up an idea it’s difficult to say no to him. He’s always so infectiously optimistic.  
   
A distant  _ding_  from your computer signifies that someone else has begun messaging you. You turn away from the pleasant feeling of the breeze on your face and head back in to potentially actually answer this one.  
   


trendyIconoclasm began pestering itinerantAperture  
TI: Are you not talking to him again?  
IA: Is he complaining to you about me again?  
TI: Is it a day of the week ending in ‘y’?  
IA: I recommend it, you know. Leaving him on ‘read’ on occasion. Letting him suffer in silence a bit. He’ll never get less needy otherwise.  
TI: Hm.  
TI: I think you’re being kind of dishonest right now. Are you being dishonest, Tsukasa?  
IA: I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean.  
TI: You can’t see it, but I’m giving you an exasperated look through the screen. That’s what I’m doing with my face.

   
You open up a game of solitaire and begin to play idly.  
   


TI: Sighhh whatever. I know you want me to change the subject so I’ll be a good friend and ask,  
TI: Did it get there? The ETA was today, right?  
IA: I haven’t heard the doorbell yet.  
TI: ??  
TI: How have you ever been able to when you’re three floors up in that obnoxiously huge mansion of yours?  
TI: Why don’t you go check anyway, jerk?  
IA: Where would I be without you rudely telling me to complete simple tasks?  
TI: I wonder.  
TI: Smack in the middle of some kind of catastrophe, probably.

   
You roll your eyes and get up from your desk again to do as instructed.  
   
It’s a long trek through the house to reach the front door, footsteps loud against the old wood floors, the echo bouncing off the vaulted ceilings. She’s right, to be honest. You wouldn’t hear the doorbell from up in your attic bedroom, and sure enough when you heft open the front door a package is sitting there on the stoop.  
   
You pick it up, turning it over in your hands. Interesting, how the barcode-esque logo for this game happens to be a vivid magenta, your favorite colour. Maybe that’s why it caught his eye in the first place. You can’t deny that thought makes you smile, a pleased sort of warmth settling in your chest.  
   
Your phone buzzes in your pocket.  
   


buoyantAchilles began pestering itinerantAperture  
BA: you got it, right?? :D  
BA: so excited to get this thing started. natsumi’s gonna get you in first, ok? she’ll control your game environment and hook you up with everything you need. then you bring in TB and help him  
IA: Is this order set in stone?  
BA: umm idk! i just feel like it has to be this way, y’know?  
IA: He’s not going to like it.  
BA: haha yeah probably not… but he’ll get over it! he usually does  
BA: this is gonna be great man just you wait and see  
BA: it’ll be like a real adventure!

   
You shade your eyes from the sun, tucking the barcode-emblazoned package under your arm, and get the oddest feeling that he might be right.


	2. ==> You are now TB.

Of course he put the fucking Alchemiter in the basement.  
   
You’d barely had time to think about it as the timer had counted down, but now that you’re here – in the Medium, or so your annoyingly helpful Sprite has informed you, in your own personal Land of Gemstones and Cats – it’s really hitting you just how much he’s been messing with you. The Sprite is the worst of it, actually. Out of everything in this fucking place that he could’ve thrown in there, he picked one of your Brother’s shitty cheerful propaganda posters of a cartoon policeman saying, “CurFew is Certified Fun for all civilians!”  
   
Omawarisprite hovers near your shoulder, his badge shining bright despite being slightly transparent now, his rosy-cheeked smile still refusing to falter.  
   
“Can you back off a bit, please,” you say flatly.  
   
“Oh, my apologies, dear citizen! Just making sure no rule-breaking is going on here! We wouldn’t want that, would we?”  
   
You grimace. “I’m going to murder Kadoya Tsukasa with my own two hands.”  
   
“That would be permissible by the game rules, though morally it might take a toll,” Omawarisprite oh-so-earnestly supplies.  
   
“I’ll take that under advisement,” you mutter.  
   
(This is all reminding you that you haven’t seen your Brother since you got here. You wonder if maybe he didn’t make it in.  
   
That’s probably wishful thinking on your part.)  
   
You jab the button in the elevator for the basement level, and a few moments later step out into the weird, laboratory-esque hallway with a weary kind of resignation. God, you hate coming down here. Never know what kinds of human rights violations are happening in this place. If there’d been any “enemies of the state” still trapped in here, at least they’ve got a chance at freedom now, you suppose.  
   
And at the very least the Alchemiter has been deployed in one of the less sketchy rooms – used to have a bunch of filing cabinets and bookcases, until they were unceremoniously dropped outside in a heap. In a similar vein, you proceed to dump all the pre-punched cards and cruxite dowels from your Treasure Chest Modus onto the floor and set to work making some goddamn Valuables with a capital V. Nothing better to cheer you up.  
   
By the end, you have a chic Treasure Sniper outfit, a powerful gun called the Diendriver allocated to your Pistolkind Specibus, and more bizarre alchemized knick-knacks than you quite know what to do with. You  _do_  feel better, you think. Enough so that you might as well lord it over him.  
 

tempestuousBandit began pestering itinerantAperture  
TB: despite ur attempts at sabotage as u can see i am doing great :)  
TB: i am already killing it at this goddamn game  
TB: gonna be at the top rung of my echeladder b4 u even blink  
IA: If I was sabotaging you, you’d absolutely know it.  
IA: What’s an echeladder, by the way?  
TB: lol seriously? what is ur sprite telling u over there  
IA: Not much.  
IA: He hasn’t exactly been forthcoming with answers. Seems to kind of hate me, actually? Which makes me wonder why the hell he jumped headlong into the kernel like he did.  
IA: Among all the other questions he raises.  
TB: u still don’t know where he even came from??  
IA: It remains a mystery. I assume he had to have been hiding in my house for a while. Which is. More than a little unsettling.  
IA: But the failure to notice is on me, I suppose.  
TB: this game is kind of fucked up i think  
TB: or maybe it’s just us that’re making it that way  
IA: Despite having a cryptic angry man-ghost glowering at me, I’m honestly having a pretty good time. So maybe it is us.  
IA: I just hit the rank of ‘Junior Buglad Terminator’ and felt a rush of euphoria despite not having any idea what that actually means.  
TB: that’s ur echeladder idiot  
TB: wait  
TB: how many rungs have u climbed  
IA: I’m pretty sure this was the ninth.  
TB: 9 already?? ugh fuck off  
TB: no way am i letting u win  
IA: And here I thought this was a co-op game, Kaitou.  
TB: the day i co-op with u any more than i have to is the day hell freezes over >:/  
tempestuousBandit ceased pestering itinerantAperture

   
You’ll have to get a move on if he’s already working his way up the ranks.  
   
Omawarisprite has informed you multiple times that the goal here is to defeat “criminals” across the land in order to gain “grist,” which can be spent to build up one’s house to reach the glowing fractal gate that hovers in the sky far above. You think all of that sounds like a major fucking chore. Still, you can’t deny you’re intrigued by the world down below, the land seemingly made entirely of gems – enormous diamonds in the place of mountains, beaches strewn with tiny rubies in the place of sand, facsimiles of trees cut of lapis lazuli and emerald.  
   
And cats, too, apparently. You’re not really sure what’s up with that. It’s hard to see from up here, but you can just barely make out the shapes of them, lounging in the sunlight on the broad stretches of gemstone facets.  
   
Cats are pretty alright creatures, you suppose. Proud. Independent. Aloof. You wouldn’t mind giving one of them a pat on the head or something.  
   
Assuming you can get down there.  
   
You peer over the ragged edge of the cliff, where your Brother’s chateau was torn out of the earth and placed, for some godforsaken reason, on top of a massive column of turquoise that reaches up like a highrise from the surface of your planet. The drop would be dizzying, if you were the type of weak idiot who was alarmed by heights. The wind rushes up to meet you, blowing your hair back from your face.  
   
“In a pickle? I will gladly offer some advice,” Omawarisprite says brightly, and you nearly jump out of your skin, having forgotten that he was floating there. “You see, being the Thief of Breath, you have the – ”  
   
“Would you shut the hell up,” you hiss. “I’m going to figure this out for myself.”  
   
He salutes you enthusiastically.  
   
Thief of Breath? You ponder this, tapping a finger against your forearm. The ‘thief’ part seems self-explanatory enough. It’s the other half that’s tripping you up. Breath as in oxygen? Stealing air? That mostly sounds fucking useless.  
   
You narrow your eyes at the sheer drop. Except maybe in this exact circumstance, oddly enough. Thievery is a bit like subtraction, after all. Taking away what’s already there. Placing it somewhere else.  
   
Of course, there’s always the chance this doesn’t work at all and you die horribly.  
   
Decisions, decisions.  
   
“Very understandable that you’re hesitating, dear citizen,” Omawarisprite says. “At your low rung on the echeladder, you don’t yet have the connection to your Aspect that a higher-tiered player would. It’s wise for a civilian to know their limits, that’s what I always say.”  
   
“…Hesitating?” you echo, lip curling. A muscle twitches beneath your eye. Your hand flexes and curls into a fist at your side, and you can feel the wind grow thinner around you. “Oh, I’ll show you hesitating.”  
   
And at that you step forward, straight off the edge of the cliff, and in the split millisecond before gravity overtakes you, you reach down and snatch the air out from under your feet.  
   
  
   
  
   
The cats turn out to be good company. You save a gang of them from one of those – what? Goblins? Shadow creatures? They’re bizarre, either way, some of them decked in spectacles, bucket hats and trenchcoats, others donning police uniforms and caps, as if they were weird little demon children playing dress-up. Annoying bastards. You’re already rolling in grist from picking them off.  
   
Currently, the cats you rescued are curled up around you, purring at a soothing decibel as you lean back against a smooth opaline rock and prop your laptop on your knees. Time to check in on the idiot you’re responsible for.  
   
Through the viewport you can see that he’s looking a bit nervous, leaning out his apartment window, undoubtedly trying to get a view of the enormous meteor that’s headed straight for him at this very moment. You pick up a manga book off his floor and nudge him in the ass with it to get his attention, and he jolts in surprise, banging his head against the windowframe.  
   


buoyantAchilles began pestering tempestuousBandit  
BA: oww dude what the hell!  
TB: get with the program onodera  
TB: by the time u can see the meteor w/o a telescope it’ll already be too late :)  
BA: that’s not… reassuring…  
TB: of course it is  
TB: especially bc i am helping u as ur benevolent god. which means u will be fine  
TB: unlike a certain person who will remain nameless i will be SO good at this. i will be the undisputed master of placing bulky nonsense items in someone’s home  
BA: i mean i’m pretty sure i’ll be ok yeah but  
BA: what about everyone else?  
BA: what about my neighbors? are they gonna make it?  
TB: does it matter  
BA: it does! you’re trying to sound all “who cares” right now but i know you do! they’re innocent people daiki  
TB: …  
TB: i know they are  
TB: but there’s nothing you can do for them at this point  
TB: a whole lot of worlds are ending, yusuke  
TB: mine’s already gone  
TB: and now yours is next  
TB: and don’t blame yourself by saying we did this by playing the game  
TB: because i don’t think that’s true  
TB: deep down you know it too. in that weird way you seem to know things  
TB: that the end was coming either way and this is more like an escape pod for us 4  
TB: why us i can’t say  
TB: maybe there is no reason  
TB: but if we’ve been given an out then we’re obligated to take it and not look back  
BA: 8(  
BA: yeah… i guess you’re right  
TB: now chin up & let me work my magic

   
There’s not enough room in his shitty little apartment for everything, but thankfully the viewport extends into the unoccupied apartment next door as well, and you find it to be viable territory in terms of deploying the game constructs. You even knock the handle off the door with a cinder block to give your dumbass friend easy access to it. You really do make things so simple for people.  
   
As he scurries around poking and prodding at these new devices in abject bewilderment, you peruse through his selection of prototypable belongings. There really isn’t much to speak of. Except maybe…  
   


TB: yusuke what the hell is this thing  
BA: oh he’s super cool right! :D i’ve had him for a long time  
BA: i could never get rid of him like i did with my other action figures  
BA: he just feels special i guess  
TB: hm. well that’s an incredibly goofy thing for a guy ur age to say  
TB: but if it’s a treasured childhood possession i think that makes it pretty good prototyping material  
TB: way better than what i got saddled with  
TB: in he goes

   
There is a flash of light as you drop the toy into the kernel.  
   


KUUGASPRITE: (thumbs up emoji)  
YUSUKE: :0


	3. ==> You are now BA.

You’ve always wanted to be a hero.  
   
Like the ones in manga, or in shows for kids. Someone who’s just so… purely good. Selfless and inspiring. Someone who always does the right thing, who changes lives for the better wherever they go, who people remember and love.  
   
Regular video games let you be that, to an extent. But hearing about this new kind of game – one that affects reality, where you get to “realize your hidden potential” – it made something leap in your heart. Finally you could live out your dream, in something as close to real life as you were going to get.  
   
Except now your entire world is gone.  
   
Even if you could be that hero, there's no one left for you to protect or save anymore.  
   
Well. You suppose there are  _some_  living creatures to pledge yourself in defense of on this new planet, if you’re so inclined. They’re these fluffy little bipedal sheep capable of (limited) human speech, some of them wearing scarves or mittens, and they’re extremely adorable. Consorts, Kuugasprite had called them. You pat one of them on its soft head and it ‘baa’s at you lovingly.  
   
Your throat feels a bit tight as you stare into its twinkling eyes.  
   
At the very least you could’ve tried to bring some people with you. Rounded up some of the folks from your building and shoved them into your apartment just before you got zapped into this place.  
   
You wonder why you didn’t think of that from the start.  
   
“Heyyy, Yusuke! Check this out!”  
   
You glance up, blinking away the stinging at the corners of your eyes to find Kuugasprite floating in front of you, juggling a set of ghostly hackysacks with practiced ease. Tosses them behind his back and over his shoulder without missing a beat. Through the curlicue loop of his spectral tail. You can’t help but applaud as they land in a perfect stack on top of his helmeted head.  
   
“That was skill number 283,” he tells you, drifting down to sit next to you on the slope. “Remind me to show you my knife juggling trick soon, okay? That’s a good one, too.”  
   
You sigh, tugging at a tuft of dark green grass absently. “You’re such a cool guy, Mr Kuugasprite. I wish I was more like you.”  
   
“Really? I dunno, Yusuke. I don’t think you should try to be like me. You should try to be you! Everyone’s got the ability to be great somewhere inside them. Their own unique kind of great, that no one else can be. Especially for a Page of Blood like you, the possibilities are amazing! It can be hard to find, but if you learn where to look, you’ll realize you had it in you all along.”  
   
You can feel the corner of your mouth lift into a smile, a tiny bit of tension leaving your shoulders. “You even talk just like all my old favorite heroes.”  
   
Kuugasprite’s horned, insect-like mask is still and unmoving, but you somehow get the sense that he’s smiling, too.  
   
“I know something that might cheer you up even more,” he says. “I already told you about reaching the gate, but there’s actually something else for you to do here on your planet. It’s your own personal Quest!”  
   
You sit up a little straighter. “Quest?”  
   
“Yep! Each player receives one, tailored to help them reach their ultimate potential. And yours… is to ‘tame the mountains.’”  
   
Your excitement falters as quick as it came, brow knitting together.  
   
“Huh? What does that mean? …Tame the mountains? Which ones? There’s… There’s kind of a lot of them.”  
   
In fact, there’s practically nothing  _but_  mountains here in the Land of Mountains and Haze. At least, you’re pretty sure there’s not. The haze itself – a faint, swirling mist through which golden light constantly filters, smudging the sparse, rocky slopes around you and turning them to something akin to an oil painting – makes it difficult to see very far into the distance.  
   
“Unfortunately I’m just a Sprite, Yusuke. I have a lot of the answers, but not all of them. A player’s Quest is purposefully mysterious, I think. It’s something you’re meant to really reflect on in order to get to the bottom of. But once you’ve figured it out, and accomplished your task, there’s the chance for an incredible reward awaiting you.”  
   
You nod slowly as you consider this. That makes sense, doesn’t it? Games often have puzzles to solve. You think you might –  
   
You freeze, fingers gone still against the grass.  
   
There’s someone standing out in the mist. A slender human-shaped figure. They’re staring right at you, it seems. There’s a weight to it despite how they’re obscured. Their silhouette almost looks like… But that can’t be right.  
   
“Um, Mr Kuugasprite,” you whisper. “Do you… see them, too?”  
   
“I do,” he says, tilting his helmeted head to the side in astonishment. “Now that’s pretty strange. I wonder who they are? You didn’t bring anyone with you when you came in, did you?”  
   
“I… don’t think so.” Suddenly you’re not so sure, and you swallow hard. “H-hey,” you call. “Do I know you?”  
   
You could swear there’s something fondly amused about the way they put a hand on their hip, before they turn away from you and vanish slowly into the haze.  
   
You stare after them in silence for a full minute before shaking yourself from your stupor.  
 

buoyantAchilles began pestering tempestuousBandit  
BA: uhh dude quick question  
BA: did you happen to see  
BA: if there was someone else in my apartment when i came through? like another human person i mean?  
BA: because i think i just saw someone else here  
BA: on my planet  
BA: and it’s kind of freaking me out a bit  
TB: …  
TB: well i like to think i would’ve noticed some nonsense like that  
TB: but as much as i hate to admit it i’m not infallible  
TB: and ok maybe i wasn’t paying super close attention right when u entered  
TB: but that’s not my fault  
TB: there were extenuating circumstances at the time  
TB: important battles to be won & all that. u know how it is  
BA: you’re just way too focused on beating tsukasa at this echeladder stuff is what i think :/  
TB: ur dumb opinion has been noted & discarded :)  
TB: with any luck it was one of those neighbors u were getting all weepy about  
TB: so now u can think of urself as the heroic savior i know u desperately want to be  
TB: for giving them a ride out of the apocalypse & into fuckoff nowhere  
BA: hey >:(  
TB: but also don’t u have someone else u should be helping rn  
TB: y’know. b4 she dies in a fiery cataclysm  
BA: oh shit  
buoyantAchilles ceased pestering tempestuousBandit

   
You stow your phone away hastily and go hunting through your Cluttered Backpack Modus for your laptop, which takes a full minute of blind rummaging to locate, finally closing your hand around the smooth corner of it with an ‘aha!’  
   
Things are definitely looking a little dire over at Natsumi’s place. There’s a faint reddish glow visible through the windows that you’re fairly sure is not a sunset. She seems to have an uncanny sense as to the viewport’s perspective, as she’s staring straight up into the camera, leveling you with a look that’s decidedly unimpressed.  
   


buoyantAchilles began pestering trendyIconoclasm  
BA: hey sorry!! i got kinda sidetracked by… stuff  
TI: Oh yeah, no rush. Just the end of the world and all.  
BA: heh…  
TI: I’ve managed to get Grandpa in the dark room doing some time-consuming developing, so he shouldn’t get in your way at all.  
TI: I moved some of the upstairs furniture aside also so you don’t have to waste as much time getting things out of the way.  
BA: wow…  
BA: you’re always so on the ball natsumi :0  
TI: What can I say?  
TI: Someone has to be in this hot mess of a group.

   
As the last player in, she has immediate access to some interesting and expensive items, but considering the circumstances you stick to the necessities for now, setting down the Cruxtruder, Totem Lathe and Alchemiter in the most convenient places you can find, wincing a bit when the weight of the last one jostles some lovely photo frames off the wall.  
   
Before you can even begin hunting around for something to prototype, Natsumi holds up what looks like a small expertly whittled wooden statuette in the shape of... an animal?  
   


TI: I decided in advance. Prototype this, okay?  
TI: And do it quick before some unknown weirdo emerges from my closet and hurls himself into the kernel.  
TI: I’ve seen enough of that for one day.  
BA: uh sure but. what is it?  
TI: Grandpa’s latest art project. Not sure where he got the idea from but he’s been really into it over the past few months, working on it every day so I just thought…  
TI: Some of his positive feelings might carry over or something?  
TI: And I think it’s pretty cute, to be honest.  
BA: haha okay!  
BA: that seems like a good enough reason to me :D

   
You pick up the so-called art project and drop it into the kernel without hesitation, and watch as wings unfurl from it, as huge coquettish eyes flutter open.  
   


KIVALASPRITE: ohoho dearie i think youre so very cute too~  
KIVALASPRITE: your sense of style is just to die for! id love to be able to wear such things too but alas i am a bat  
KIVALASPRITE: though of course a very beautiful one  
KIVALASPRITE: goodness im so glad to be able to speak to you like this finally~  
KIVALASPRITE: youre like a daughter to me you know!  
KIVALASPRITE: or maybe more like a granddaughter~ because of the special bond shared between your grandfather and i~~  
KIVALASPRITE: i cant wait for us to be like a real family! it will be such a joy~ xoxo  
KIVALASPRITE: arent you happy too dearie  
NATSUMI: 0_0


	4. ==> Natsumi: Wake up.

You open your eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling.  
   
You think that should probably be alarming, but it isn’t. Because ‘unfamiliar’ is perhaps not the correct word. You’ve never seen it before, this vivid violet room around you, but you know it nonetheless. Its layout is the very same as your bedroom at home. The texture of the sheets beneath your fingertips, though like night air spun into cloth, is somehow innately recognizable. And above all else. It feels like a place that belongs to you.  
   
You sit up, swinging your legs over the edge of the bed and placing your slippered feet on the floor. The soft sleep clothes you’re wearing match the room perfectly, and you take a moment to appreciate the theming. Purple is your favorite colour, after all.  
   
Moving to the window, you look out. Over the countless sharp spires of the moon you inhabit, past the similarly jagged shape of the violet planet the moon is chained to, out into the pure recesses of space. You stare deeper. Between the stars. The dark feels magnetic, a quicksand of black pulling you in. There’s something out there, you feel. Something you have no name for, and perhaps has none that can be spoken. It scares you, but also. Intrigues you, and with a shudder you force yourself to look away.  
   
In its place, you focus your thoughts on the tower opposite your own. You are capable of flight in this world, you know, and kick off through the window a moment later, soaring towards your destination. Down below in the streets, the creatures that live here stop to point up at you. You wave and smile at one of them, and though their smooth, black chitinous features should be hard to read, you can tell that they seem a bit flustered by your attention, in a way that’s rather cute.  
   
You reach your destination, landing lightly on the window and ducking through.  
   
No one is here in this opposite tower. That gives you pause, because you know in your heart that someone is supposed to be. They could be out, roaming this kingdom much like you are. And yet. The room gives the impression that it has not been used in many years. A vacant feeling. Everything is utterly still.  
   
No obvious clues remain that could tell you where to find the person you’re seeking. Except for four words scrawled in what looks like paint across the wall.  
   
WILL BE THE KING  
   
You stare at the message for a time, unsure of what to make of it, though the words seem to carve themselves into your mind. In the end, you simply turn to leave again, deciding to visit the planet down below on your hunt for your wayward companion. Maybe someone there has seen them.  
   
You land gracefully on the city streets. The mood is far more subdued than you imagined for such a sprawling metropolis. The air lies heavy and oppressive. The few black-shelled residents who are out and about seem amazed to see you, much like the others, but don’t linger for too long, casting their eyes down low a moment later and scurrying on their way. You attempt to speak with them to no avail.  
   
On and on you walk through the twisting and turning alleyways and thoroughfares, until you arrive in front of a structure so imposing that it can only be called a palace. The guards out front snap to attention as you climb the steps, exchanging a glance with each other, but do nothing to impede you. As if they’d been instructed to let you pass.  
   
You find yourself in an imposingly massive hallway, as tall as it is long, and you can see them there in the distance – the doors to the throne room, beyond which the ruler of this kingdom awaits. Your pace is steady. Wary as you approach. You seem to walk for hours, though undoubtedly it is only minutes, until finally the doors are there in front of you, dwarfing you in their size, and you reach out to  
   
  
   
  
   
A calamitous noise jolts you awake for real. You blink blearily in the direction of it to find that one of your Consorts has accidentally tipped an entire bookshelf over, causing the musty old tomes to topple to the floor in an avalanche of paper and dust. They stand there and squeak at the resulting mess guiltily. It’s hard, you imagine, being a tiny-armed mouse creature the size of a toddler.  
   
“Don’t worry about it,” you say, hiding a yawn behind your hand as you haul yourself out of bed. Why there’s an antique canopied four-poster here in the library is beyond you – the inner architecture and design of every single one of these castles has proven unfathomable – but you’d been too tired to resist its siren song. “Those books are all pretty worthless anyway.”  
   
“Worthless, Miss?” the Consort says.  
   
“Yeah.” You reach down to pick one up off the floor, flipping it open and frowning as you flick through the pages. “I mean. I think they  _might_  say something interesting, some kind of hyper-detailed historical account of an important person’s life…? But half the text is blacked out, so…” You trail off. The mouse creature’s eyes are huge as they stare up at you. Huge and with nothing but elevator music behind them. “Right. I don’t know why I’m telling you this. You should go back to your friends, okay? And watch out for all the heavy stuff in here. Try not to get hurt.”  
   
They curtsy adorably before doing as they’re told.  
   
You snap the old book shut; shove it haphazard onto another shelf as you think back on your dream. That must have been Derse. Kivalasprite let slip a little more than she was probably meant to when you were questioning her about the makeup of this new “solar system” you’ve found yourself in. Did your dream self finally wake because she was simply ready to do so? Or was it the direct result of you learning of her existence? Both?  
   
This is your life now, huh, you think drily. Pondering bizarre causality questions alone in a crumbling castle. You think you might be getting kind of stir-crazy on this planet. You were intrigued by the Quest Kivalasprite told you about, to ‘raise the ruins’, and had been determined to solve it first and foremost, but each castle here in the Land of Castles and Velvet seems to be the same as the last. Just a strange, meandering sequence of chilly old rooms full of furniture in odd places and inexplicable artwork and unreadable books. Rather than having found any clues, you instead feel more stumped than when you set out.  
   
Some ‘Maid of Mind’ you are.  
   
You’d  _like_  to get out of here, but – you step out onto the parapets and squint in the direction of your house – it doesn’t seem as if dear Yusuke has done any further building since you last prodded him. The dubiously-constructed Hikari Studios tower is still at the halfway point to reaching the gate. You know he’s trying his best, of course. He tends to get a bit singular in his focus at times, and right now he’s just so into helping those little sheeps with all of their sweet little sheep problems. (Daiki thinks he’s overcompensating. He still feels bad, he says, about the now-destroyed world he left behind.)  
   
In the end, you might have to find a different way to get up there – what is  _that_. Something drops out of the gate right as you’re watching it. Hovers there beneath it before seeming to. To spot you? It’s coming your way. And it’s getting louder as it does, a rumbling, revving noise that cuts through the muffled quiet of your planet like a knife.  
   
It’s a motorcycle, sleek black and white with pink highlights. And it’s flying. It glides up to hover right in front of you, the engine idling.  
 

TSUKASA: Hey.  
TSUKASA: Want a lift, Natsumikan?

   
You blink up at him. He’s wearing dark aviator sunglasses and a perfectly tailored black suit emblazoned with the hot pink barcode logo of the game you’re playing right now, the design of which he seems to have taking an interesting shine to. Those same bars pinstripe his tie as well. He looks obnoxiously good, of course. Emphasis on the obnoxious.  
   
It hits you that this the first time you’ve ever met him in person. All the times you’ve thought about it, this isn’t exactly how you imagined it going.  
   
You roll your eyes, fighting back a smile as you reach up to accept his outstretched hand.  
 

 

   
“So, wait,” you say. “I thought Daiki was the wind guy.”  
   
“He is,” he says, leaning back against his bike, legs crossed at the ankles, tugging absentmindedly at the strap of his camera. “I may have… abused my omniscient abilities as his server player just a little bit. Swiped some of that Breath power for myself in order to craft some things. But you can’t really blame me, can you?” A pause, in which his lips press together in a thin line. “Not sure why  _he_  managed to get such a practical Aspect.”  
   
“What are you, again? The Bard of…?”  
   
“Heart.” He says the word distastefully. “Whatever that’s supposed to mean.”  
   
“Honestly I’m not sure what ‘Mind’ really means, either,” you sigh. “And according to Yusuke’s Sprite, ‘Blood’ is not literal. Kind of weird, isn’t it? How only Daiki managed to get something… easily comprehensible. I wonder if it’s actually supposed to be like this.” You smile, sardonic. “Or if we just lucked out and got a total nonsense session.”  
   
“Either that or the Powers That Be thought we could handle hard mode,” Tsukasa says. He’s deigned to remove his shades, and you can see his eyes brighten at the thought. “In which case: challenge accepted.”  
   
You huff out a laugh, but your humor fades into pensive silence a moment later as you stare out at the strange, colourful view of Tsukasa’s planet. You’d flown across Yusuke’s on the way here, and you’d thought about him, down there in the mist somewhere. About what Daiki said.  
   
“Tsukasa,” you say. “Are you… broken up, at all? About your world being gone now?”  
   
He seems to consider this.  
   
“Well it’s a tragedy,” he says finally. “That’s a lot of people whose lives ended. But. Frankly I didn’t know any of them. I had no connections there. And that place never felt like home to me.”  
   
You nod in quiet understanding. Your thoughts are almost the same. Are you heartless, you keep wondering, for not being overcome with sadness like Yusuke? At least you aren’t the only one who isn't.  
   
“What about here? Does this place feel more like home?” you ask, raising an eyebrow at the view. The Land of Distortions and Marble is an inexplicable locale. The vast stretches of gleaming white marble laced through with glittering gold, forming itself into plains and hills and valleys. The bizarre smudged jumbles of colour and shape and form interspersed across it, some merely flat 2D “artwork” floating in space when examined up close, others with tangible presence, but not a single one of them having any distinguishable shape or function.  
   
“It’s definitely more interesting,” Tsukasa says.  
   
You notice that he didn’t exactly answer the question.  
   
In the distance you spot a hulking imp lumbering out from behind one of the distortions, at least a dozen of the smaller ones scuttling along in its wake. An annoying little procession. You can feel your posture shift and tense at the sight of them. Tsukasa watches their movements with a keen look in his eye and a thoughtful hum.  
   
“You’re trailing a bit behind on your echeladder, aren’t you?” he says. “The drawback of entering last. Why don’t you rack up some experience while you’re here? I’ll give you my gracious assistance, if you want.”  
   
“How kind of you,” you say flatly, unsheathing your Empress Estoque from your sylladex. “Be careful. You’ve already done me one favor out of the goodness of your heart today. Anything else and the universe might unbalance itself.”


	5. ==> IA: Pester your dear pal.

itinerantAperture began pestering tempestuousBandit  
IA: You know I can’t help but notice.  
TB: …?  
TB: ok u fucking got me  
TB: notice what  
TB: by all means continue. i’m just riveted on the edge of my seat waiting to hear what self-obsessed observation mr kadoya has to share w/ the class today  
IA: I can’t help but notice how I haven’t seen you at all since we entered the Medium.  
IA: I know both of us have been traveling pretty extensively through the gates. And there’s only four planets. You’d think we would’ve crossed paths at least once.  
IA: It’s making me feel a bit lonely.  
TB: lol yeah i bet  
TB: it’s bc u keep leaving in a hurry & ur gone by the time i get there  
TB: like u can sense me on ur tail  
TB: too much of a coward to meet me in person tsukasa? >:)  
IA: Hm. I wonder if that’s what it really is.  
IA: Isn’t it more like… you purposefully hanging back?  
IA: Waiting until you know I’ve moved on to take that step yourself? Hesitating there by the gate?  
IA: You know what I think, Daiki?  
IA: I think you’re the one who’s scared to meet me.  
TB: lmaoo u wish  
IA: I think it’s easier for you this way. Following along after me, telling yourself you’re tracking me down, that it’s some kind of game you’re winning at.  
IA: When all you’re really doing is making excuses for yourself. Skirting around the fact that it frightens you to your very core.  
IA: The idea that I might genuinely hate you, when we meet face to face.  
TB: …what the fuck  
TB: how about toning it down with the OTT edgy theatrics man this is just eyerolly to read. ur embarrassing urself rn. i’m embarrassed for u  
IA: Are you?  
IA: It’s so hard to tell just from chatting like this, isn’t it? How someone actually feels.  
IA: But in person, the truth always gets revealed eventually.  
IA: You’re so damn scared of meeting me and looking into my eyes and seeing that all this time I’ve simply been putting up with you. That the “friendly rivalry” insults and jeers were real and true, and that I just plain can’t stand you.  
IA: Or even worse.  
IA: That I don’t care about you in the slightest.  
IA: That’s the prospect that really messes you up.  
IA: Hate would at least be something, right? Some people might even say that being hated isn’t so far from being loved.  
IA: But total indifference? Ouch.  
IA: The thought in the back of your mind that you might not be worth anything at all to me? It’s a tough possibility to grapple with. I don’t blame you for being wary.  
IA: Rejection like that could really destroy a person like you.  
IA: A person so pathetic and desperate for a purpose, for acknowledgement from someone greater. Who would you be without me?  
IA: You would’ve happily, obliviously existed under the thumb of your brother's regime until the day you died.  
IA: And doesn’t that just eat you up inside?  
tempestuousBandit has blocked itinerantAperture

   
Ah, you think. You made him mad.  
   
You lean back with a pleased smile. Maybe that was all taking it a bit beyond the pale. But it’s just so much fun, pushing his buttons like that. He’s one of your only real sources of entertainment around this place.  
   
You’re bored out of your mind. That’s the genuine truth of the matter. You’ve been bored for years, listlessly waiting for this game to get started already. There’s only so much a man can do to Carapaces before their programmed emotional responses begin to feel utterly stale.  
   
In the midst of all this tedium, sniping back and forth with him has been a bright spot in your routine. Though maybe you've been tipping the accepted balance of animosity a little far as of late.  
   
One of your security officers appears at your side. A guy you respect, to the extent you can feel respect for any of these game constructs. Very ruthless. One of your favorite qualities for someone to have. He says things are looking a bit thorny down below, boss. Thorny how, you ask. Thorny as in the troops are getting walloped, he says.  
   
You lift your eyes to the ceiling at that. You used to try and tell them. That winning was inevitable, for your side of this war. That it’s written into the coding. None of them ever seemed to get it through their black skulls.  
   
He says morale might be an issue. Oh really, you say, examining your nails with disinterest. He says he’s pretty sure the King is supposed to be down there with them, fighting the war on the frontlines. You ask him why he’s so sure about that, and he shrugs. The Prospitian King is down there, he says. And it just seems right.  
   
You ask him who he proposes to run the kingdom if you’re slaving away in the trenches. The Queen? You both share a bit of a private laugh at that. As if you didn’t have her banished to the Veil years ago. You’ve never been much for sharing the seat of power.  
   
He says maybe you could just show yourself to the troops, boss. A quick royal stopover. Wave and smile a bit to lift their weary spirits or whatever. Behead a couple of Prospit bastards right in front of them. The typical war propaganda shit.  
   
It’s funny, you think, how your people still love you so much despite all the things you’ve done to them. And by funny you mean tedious. You would have programmed this game with far more reactive AI, personally. God, you’d love to crush a complex insurgent uprising right about now.  
   
But at the moment, you suppose, this performative war whose outcome is already decided will have to do. At least it’s an activity.  
   
You sigh, kicking a leg up as you get to your feet, rolling your neck to ease some of the stiffness from your muscles. You hold out a hand, expectant, and one of your aides rushes to deliver your sword right into your grasp. It’s been a while since you last held it, and you take a moment to check its balance, its grip against your palm, finally letting the blade come to rest against your shoulder.  
   
What an occasion. In any other session such a thing would be unremarkable. But this is not any other session. This is yours, and Skaia should feel grateful, you think, to get an audience with the Black King himself.


	6. ==> Daiki: Contemplate.

It’s not like you haven’t wondered about it.  
   
You’re not blind, or stupid. (Not anymore.) You’ve just convinced yourself there must be a simple enough reason behind it, is all.  
   
For why he seems like a totally different person sometimes, when he talks to you.  
   
Mood swings, is what you’ve chalked it up to for years now. (Though lately you’ve been questioning if there’s really such a straightforward answer.) It was exhilarating, in a way, to think that he would let you see some darker side of himself. And only you, apparently. Whenever you tried to bring it up with the other two, they didn’t seem to get what you meant.  
   
Tsukasa’s always kind of rude, just like you are, Natsumi had said, but she would’ve known it if she’d experienced it, wouldn’t she? Not just ‘smug’ or ‘playfully impolite.’ This Tsukasa is  _vicious._  Derisive. Cruel for the fun of it, simply because he can be.  
  
So it was just you he talked to like this. And that made you feel. What? Special?  _Privileged_ , to be given a first row seat to the spiteful reality of Kadoya Tsukasa?  
   
It’s starting to seem like far less of a privilege now.  
   
Before, you probably wouldn’t have blocked him over a diatribe like that. You would’ve pushed through the stabbing feeling in your chest, the sick turning in your stomach, and tried your best to hurt him in return, all the while knowing deep down that it wasn’t having any effect. That nothing you said could ever damage him the same way he was able damage you. You wonder why you never considered simply slamming the door in his face like that in the past.  
   
This game has already changed you, you think. Given you the sense that you’re finally doing something. That you’ve stepped out of the shadow of the world you hated so much. That you have the chance be someone meaningful, too.  
   
Maybe you don’t have to prove yourself by verbally exchanging blows with him anymore. Not when he’s like that, at least.  
   
You try to focus on that thought: this new, positive resolution for yourself, holding it in your mind like a treasure.  
   
(You try not to think about how everything he said was undeniably true.)  
   
Back in reality, someone is calling your name. You glance down from your perch in the comfortable junction of tree limbs to find Yusuke frowning up at you. At least, you think he’s frowning. The only trees on Lomah are towering, ancient things, growing straight as an arrow up into the sky despite the incline of the mountains beneath them, only climbable via some tricky wind manipulation. Sitting this high up in their branches turns whoever or whatever is on the ground into mere smudges of colour.  
   
You hop off the branch, stealing the air and landing lightly next to him in an instant, and he jumps, startled.  
   
“Wish you would warn me when you’re about to do that,” he mutters. “What’re you hanging around out here for? Didn’t you say you’d help put the roof on the new town hall?”  
   
“Right, how could I forget,” you say with a mocking smile. “The town hall. For the sheep.”  
   
“They need one! It’ll help foster a sense of community, and. And democracy!”  
   
You sigh before stepping closer, reaching out to press your hands against the slope of Yusuke’s neck, thumbs resting along his jawline, holding him there as you lean down to look him in the eyes, which are suddenly very wide. And tired, you think. He looks like he hasn’t been sleeping well. Hell, you  _know_  he hasn’t been. You’ve been watching him ‘sleepwalk’ right out of his golden tower every night since you woke up in the opposite one. Watching him float there, suspended, his face tilted up towards Skaia. (You’ve tried to lead him back ‘home’ to little avail.) He seems to see far more in the clouds with his eyes closed than you do with your eyes open, which has to be some kind of cosmic joke, though he never remembers much of it when he wakes. Just fragments, sometimes. Snippets of emotion. But whatever he’s been ‘seeing’ lately has been doing a number on him all the same.  
   
“Yusuke,” you say. “You need to get off this goddamn planet.”  
   
Maybe progressing in this game will be enough to finally wake him up.  
   
“I’m – I’m working on my Quest here,” he says, defensive, averting his eyes from yours.  
   
“So you keep telling me. But all I’ve been seeing is you fucking around setting up a working inter-mountain postal system for dumb sheep who can’t even read or write.”  
   
“They could learn!”  
   
“They don’t have opposable thumbs, Yusuke.”  
   
He scowls, slapping your hands away. “I don’t know why you’re being so – ”  
   
“You don’t want to meet Tsukasa and Natsumi?”  
   
That seems to give him pause. “Wh… Y-yeah, of course I do, but. Do  _you_  want to? Meet Tsukasa? Right now?”  
   
You try to keep your face impassive. “Might as well get it over with, is what I’m thinking. I get the feeling we aren’t going to have much longer to peacefully kill time in this game either way. And I’m not ashamed to admit that I still don’t entirely know what’s going on or what we’re supposed to do about it.” You pause, and carefully continue: “Natsumi at least might have some clue. She’s good at solving problems.”  
   
“And her Sprite is really chatty,” Yusuke muses.  
   
“That, too.”  
   
You watch as his expression shifts gradually from perturbed to pensive to accepting, as most of the tension saps away from the line of his shoulders, leaving them slumped low with resignation.  
   
“You’re right,” he says finally, softly. “I’ve been wasting too much time here. I just…” He swallows visibly and shakes his head, and when he looks up at you again he’s smiling, a little forced but not entirely false. “Sorry, Daiki. I really do want to see them. And I know you do, too. Even if you won’t really admit it. So maybe we should go. As soon as we can.” He nods to himself, like he’s formulating a plan in his head. “Let’s… meet up at my place in an hour or something, okay? I promise I’ll be there. Just. Gotta say goodbye to everyone first.”  
   
“Yeah, go on,” you say, rolling your eyes and jabbing a thumb over your shoulder, in the direction of the Consort village. “I’ll see you there.”  
   
You watch him walk away and be subsumed into the mist with an emotion halfway between anticipation and trepidation sitting low in the pit of your stomach.  
   
It’s cute, in a way, how he thinks it’s all as simple as ‘I know you want to see them, too.’  
   
Your phone buzzes in your pocket. You freeze for a moment, heart in your throat, before remembering again that you blocked him, and can feel a sharp, jagged laugh catch in your chest as you reach for it.  
   
Your eyes narrow as you stare down at the screen.  
 

inquisitiveKeiji began pestering tempestuousBandit  
IK: Hello.  
IK: I wonder if we might be able to talk for a bit.

   
It’s not as if your chumhandle is set to private. You’ve had randos appear in your messages on rare occasion before, usually just bored idiots looking for someone naïve to mess with (which, okay, you were absolutely an easy target back in the day, though you became decidedly less of one as time went on).  
   
All of that was before your entire world ended, though.  
 

TB: who are u supposed to be  
IK: I know this is pretty out of nowhere.  
IK: But I hope you’ll at least hear me out.  
IK: I am… was an officer with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police.  
IK: My name is Yashiro Ai.  
IK: And I have some information that I’ve been tasked with relaying to you.


	7. ==> Remain highkey suspicious.

TB: wow what an honor  
TB: the tokyo mpd right here in my chat client :)  
TB: sorry but i don’t fuck w/ cops  
IK: I know.  
TB: …u know  
IK: Yes. My contact informed me that you would be a bit reluctant to talk at first.  
TB: oh of course  
TB: and who is this person who apparently knows me so well?  
IK: You.  
IK: You from a ways in the future, that is.  
TB: …  
TB: gotta say this is a weird attempt at clowning on me  
TB: but interesting at least so i have to give props  
TB: u do know the world ended tho right? or maybe urs hasn’t yet but it’s probably gonna happen soon. see any meteors out there?  
TB: feels like u should maybe focus on that instead, pal  
IK: Yes, my world is gone. Mine was the same as Yusuke’s.  
IK: Honestly it’s probably silly to keep calling myself an officer now that everything is…  
IK: Habits are hard to break, I suppose.  
TB: ok wait back up  
TB: u know yusuke?  
IK: I don’t know if he ever mentioned me to you. But I’m his older sister, of a sort.  
IK: Not in any blood related way, but I do think of him as family.  
TB: i  
TB: ok this is  
TB: seriously?  
TB: uh yeah he talked about u a lot kinda to the point of it being majorly embarrassing but that’s a little beyond the point atm like  
TB: how…  
TB: are u the person he said he saw here on lomah? who came through w/o us noticing??  
IK: That was me, yes.  
IK: You were actually the one who told me where to be and when in order to enter this game and avoid certain death. So I guess some thanks are in order.  
IK: You also helped me prevent an attempt on Yusuke’s life a few months ago. Thanks for that, too.  
TB: ??  
TB: who tf would want him dead  
IK: Someone who didn’t want this game to be played, I think. Someone who knew he would be a vital part of it. Though according to you, the 4 of you playing was inevitable.  
IK: So maybe me protecting his life was also inevitable? Honestly, this stuff is all a little above my head. Causality and paradoxes and all of that. I can’t deny I’ve always been more of a practical down-to-earth type.  
TB: paradoxes???  
IK: “Events that beget themselves.”  
IK: That’s how you described them to me.  
TB: how in the goddamn do i ever know about this shit  
IK: I believe because you get in touch with people who do.  
IK: Which was my general purpose in contacting you. To give you a message from yourself. Someone you need to talk to, to set certain events in motion.  
IK: Their handle is iambicTechnomance.  
IK: Wait I mean iambicTechnomance. Is the colour important? I’m not sure.  
TB: who are they  
IK: You didn’t say. Just that it’s key that you message them “whenever it feels right.”  
IK: Now I’ve fulfilled my end of the agreement and I have to go, sorry. I’m meeting someone. I think I have my own role to play here.  
IK: Good luck with everything. To you and the others.  
IK: And I’d appreciate it… if you didn’t mention to Yusuke that you spoke with me.  
IK: I’ve been observing him a bit on this planet, and. Well. All that matters is he’s moving on, thanks to you. Knowing that I’m around might just get him hung up on our world again.  
IK: It’s better to focus on the now.  
IK: For him, at least.  
IK: Let other people worry about the past and the future.  
inquisitiveKeiji ceased pestering tempestuousBandit

   
You stare down at your phone blankly.  
   
Every damn day in this game it’s a new inexplicable conversation. Though maybe. It’s more like you hate how reasonable some of this is starting to seem. Of course your future self sent a message for your current self through Yusuke’s cop sister, telling you to chat up some person you’ve never fucking heard of before. Is this not a logical progression of nonsense from the nonsense you’ve already experienced?  
   
It could all be some kind of ruse, obviously. She could be in league with someone whose intentions are less than ideal. She might not even exist anymore; her identity co-opted by someone else. And how do you know you can trust this “future self,” anyway?  
   
But it all  _feels_  legit, in some nebulous instinctual way. A vibe that you can almost sense in the air.  
   
So you have a stranger to contact, then.  
   
With everything else on your mind at the moment, you’re going to have to push them aside and think about that one later.  
   


trendyIconoclasm began pestering tempestuousBandit  
TI: Hey are you guys gonna get here soon?  
TI: Because I love him. You know I do.  
TI: But if I have to spend much more alone time with Tsukasa I’m about to start throwing rocks at him.  
TB: once i’m there we can throw rocks together >:)  
TB: it’s what he deserves  
TB: and yeah we’re coming over soon  
TB: just had a. distraction come up but it’s all good  
TB: and yusuke should be done hugging all of his sheep by now so operation meetup is a go

   
You begin the trudge back up the mountain in the direction of Yusuke’s apartment tower. Well. To be fair you don’t do much trudging anymore. Mostly a lot of zipping around. But your ability to thieve the air is restricted a bit in a place like this, with so many massive trees and rocky outcroppings in your path, your vision obscured as it is by the haze. You’re required to do at least  _some_  of the physical leg work.  
   


TB: u two are on locav, right  
TB: thought u weren’t big on that place  
TI: I mean. It’s complicated.  
TI: The more time I spend here the more I like it but that just makes it extra confusing.  
TI: Because it’s pretty eerie so… I don’t know. It’s weird. To think that this is what I ended up with as a personalized planet.  
TI: How come you got the adorable jewel planet with all those sweet little kitties?  
TB: privileges of bein a thief, the best class in the game ;)  
TI: Uh-huh.  
TI: Either way this does seem like the place to be if we want answers. There’s a lot hidden here, I think. I got frustrated searching alone but with you all to help we might finally uncover something.  
TB: well i trust ur judgment  
TB: i don’t know if i’ve ever said that to another human person b4 so u better savor that  
TI: /rolls eyes  
TB: and i’m coming up on yusuke’s place now so i’ll talk to u soon  
TB: in person  
TB: which feels strange to say  
TI: Oh, come on. It’s not really me you feel strange about meeting, is it?  
TI: Be seeing you, Daiki.  
trendyIconoclasm ceased pestering tempestuousBandit

   
You can feel your mouth twist into a grimace. All these conversations with annoyingly knowledgeable women are bad for your health, you’re fairly sure.  
   
Your pace slows at the foot of Yusuke’s apartment tower, craning your neck to peer up at the way it vanishes into the mist above. Of course, you did a near-flawless job at constructing the thing. There’s only maybe… three or four rickety exterior staircases that might be at risk of collapse if someone put their full weight on them.  
   
Hm, you think. Well okay, that could be. A  _minor_  problem.  
   
You elect to wait, reclining on the bottom-most step of the place and idly snatching at the air until Yusuke finally jogs out of the haze, slowing to a stop in front of you with his hands on his knees as he catches his breath.  
   
“Didn’t have to… hang back on account of me,” he pants.  
   
“Do you have any idea how long it would probably take you to climb this thing the old-fashioned way?” You hop back to your feet and sidle up close to him. “My way is way faster, y’know.”  
   
“Eh?” His eyes widen. “Oh no, don’t tell me we’re – ”  
   
“This is how VIPs travel, Yusuke.” You smile, sliding an arm around his waist. “You should feel grateful.”  
   
  
   
  
   
She’s right about the eeriness. You’ve been around Locav already, poking through the ancient castles and maybe pocketing a few curios you came across, but it’s not until now that you’ve really thought about it. How quiet it is here. The way the pale purplish dusk never seems to end. How vaguely unsettling it is to stand on a hill with dead grass beneath your feet and stare up at a shroud of burgundy velvet whipping in the wind, caught on a rusted metal frame like some sort of ghostly scarecrow.  
   
You make a mental note to drag Natsumi for whatever bizarre part of her subconscious made this place a reality.  
   
“I think it’s this one,” Yusuke mutters from behind you. You turn to see him squinting at his phone, trying to make sense of the ‘helpful’ hand-drawn map Tsukasa sent him.  
   
“Well someone’s waving to us from that window up there,” you say, peering at the upper floors of the castle in question. “So. Good guess.”  
   
She’s there to greet you by the time you’ve circled around to the front doors. Both of them are, actually – she halts mid-step, frowning, before marching back inside to grab Tsukasa and haul him out by the arm, dragging him down the overgrown stone path to meet you.  
   
And just like that, the four of you are sharing the same space for the very first time.  
   
“You guys,” Yusuke says, sounding a bit choked up, and dashes forward to catch both of them in a joint hug. They look taken aback for a moment before relaxing into it, Natsumi smiling as she pats him on the back in return, Tsukasa’s expression startlingly fond as his hand comes to rest on the top of his head.  
   
He always did seem to have a special soft spot for Yusuke.  
   
Maybe now, having come as far as you have, you can admit… That you’ve been a bit jealous, at times.  
   
Yusuke pulls back to stare at them, and you can see his expression gradually turning nervous. “Oh man,” he says. “You all are… so good-looking in person. Daiki, too. I always kinda thought it was, y’know. Webcams make people look better sometimes, right? That’s – that’s what mine does. But you’re legit like fashion models or something. What the hell – ”  
   
Natsumi slices a hand across her throat in attempt to cut him off, her eyes wide. “Okay, that’s sweet of you,” she hisses, “but you really shouldn’t say that, it’s going to go… right to his head…”  
   
She trails off, wincing when she sees Tsukasa preening visibly.  
   
“It’s just facts, Natsumikan,” he says, looking decidedly pleased. He places a hand under Yusuke’s chin and tilts his head up. “You’re pretty cute in person yourself.”  
   
“R-really?” Yusuke manages, laughing overloud, having taken on the appearance of a small animal caught in the headlights.  
   
“Oh my god,” Natsumi mutters.  
   
“What about you, Kaitou?” His eyes slide over to give you a thoughtful look, and you feel something drop like a stone in the pit of your stomach. “Are you going to tell me how handsome I am?”  
   
You bare your teeth in what you hope is a mocking smile. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”  
   
Natsumi glances between the two of you. A moment later and she is running over to throw her arms around you, sending you staggering back with the force of it. You blink, righting yourself, unsure of what to do with your hands as they hover near her shoulders. Yusuke had, too, when you’d first encountered each other, but you’re still not used to this. Before them, you’re not sure you can remember the last time someone hugged you.  
   
She pulls back to smile at you, half exasperated and half fond, reaching up to pat your cheek. “It’s good to see you,” she says. “I’m rooting for you.”  
   
And at that she’s turning around, grabbing Yusuke by the collar of his shirt on her way back up to the castle, saying something brusque about “needing his help” as she tugs him along and receiving a hapless “eh?” in return.  
   
Which leaves only you and him.  
   
“Well, here I am,” you say, gesturing down at yourself. “Standing right in front of you. Sorry to say, but all your petty little jeers and taunts weren’t very effective.”  
   
Tsukasa tilts his head to the side. It all seems so genuine when he asks: “My what?”  
   
You stare back at him. Your hand curls tight at your side as a vague, unsettled feeling prickles along the back of your neck. Somehow, deep down, you already knew what he would say.  
   
“Tsukasa,” you start, “I think…”  
   
_I think something’s wrong._  Would that be a stupid thing to tell him? Your entire worlds are gone, and here you are standing in the shadow of a ruined castle, on a strange planet created by the mechanisms of a game you can’t hope to understand. Of course something’s fucking wrong.  
   
And announcing “I think something’s wrong  _with you_ ” isn’t exactly how you’d hoped your first meeting to go.  
   
You glance back up to find that he’s closed the distance between you. Close enough that you can see his eyes in detail for the very first time – how purely dark they are. And without any of the disdain that you always dreaded seeing there. This can’t be the same person as the one you blocked just a few short hours earlier. It just can’t.  
   
“Glad you could make it,” he says simply, and reaches out to pull you into a one-arm embrace.  
   
You go very still. It’s… awkward, you think. His purposefully not-too-tight grip on your shoulder. The way he’s attempting to make it casual. You never really imagined that he was capable of ‘awkward.’ Always built him up in your mind as someone beyond all that. But suddenly it hits you that maybe… Him, too. That before just recently, no one had put their arms around him in ages, either.  
   
Haltingly, you press a hand against his back and let yourself return this hug, just a little.  
   
  
   
  
   
  
   
“Alright, we’re collecting all the information we have access to and we’re putting it together,” Natsumi says firmly. “So summon your Sprites.”  
   
You’re sitting in a circle in one of the castle’s many drawing rooms, Natsumi and Yusuke cross-legged on the stone floor, you and Tsukasa having pulled up two rickety claw-footed chairs with velvet seat cushions. You make a face at the prospect.  
   
“I’d rather not,” you say. “Mine’s kind of a bust. No thanks to someone.” You smile sweetly over at Tsukasa, who arches an eyebrow.  
   
“Even mine is here,” he says, jabbing a thumb over to the corner of the room where his bizarre middle-aged man Sprite is floating, eerie and sullen, glaring at him from under his bucket hat. “You might as well, Kaitou.”  
   
“Damn you,” the Sprite mutters, and Tsukasa lifts his eyes to the ceiling as he heaves a sigh.  
   
“Do you have anything else to add, Narutakisprite? Or is it just going to be that again today?”  
   
Narutakisprite continues watching him like a hawk but does not reply.  
   
“Fine,” you concede, fishing the alchemized charm out of your captchalogue and pressing the indentation to summon Omawarisprite into the room, who instantly salutes the four of you.  
   
“Greetings, citizens,” he exclaims. “Boy is it swell to see you again, Kaitou-kun! And to see the public exercising their right to peaceful non-disruptive assembly. Though I sure hope nothing illegal is being discussed!”  
   
Tsukasa grins. “What, you really don’t like this guy?” he asks you. “He’s hilarious.”  
   
You give him a withering look in return.  
   
A few minutes later and the other two have also been summoned, Kivalasprite having cornered Kuugasprite to flirtatiously compliment his sleight of hand magic tricks, and Natsumi massages her temples before turning back to you and the other two.  
   
“Okay, so I’ve been piecing this mess together as best I can,” she says. “Let’s start with the very basics.” Here she retrieves something from her own captchalogue – an antique wooden chessboard, which she places in the center of the circle with a decisive  _thunk_.  
   
“Think of this as Skaia,” she says.


End file.
